Federal officials fear that national security may have been jeopardized when the company building a sensitive phone-number database violated a federal requirement that only U.S. citizens work on the project.
The database is significant because it tracks nearly every phone number in North America, making it a key tool for law enforcement agencies seeking to monitor criminal or espionage targets.
Now Telcordia, a Swedish-owned firm, is being compelled to rewrite the database computer code a massive undertaking to assuage concerns from officials at the FBI and Federal Communications Commission that foreign citizens had access to the project. These officials fear that if other countries gain access to the code, they could reap a counterintelligence bonanza, learning the targets of U.S. law enforcement and espionage investigations....
The system was created in 1997 to solve a consumer problem: allowing people to keep their numbers when they switch phone companies. It is also instrumental every time a person makes a call or sends a text message, allowing that persons carrier to ping the database to learn which other phone service should next receive the call or text. In addition, law enforcement agencies rely on the database to link suspects numbers to carriers so that search warrants can be executed.
More details here:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/security-of-critical-phone-database-called-into-question/2016/04/28/11c23b10-0c8d-11e6-a6b6-2e6de3695b0e_story.html
As a side issue, one of the unanticipated outcomes of the 1984 Bell System breakup was key US telecom tech firms such as Telcordia (former Bellcore) and Lucent eventually coming under foreign ownership.
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